GF: Sweet Potato & Apple Coffee Cake

Who knew Costco sold sweet potatoes! OH! I’m in trouble now!

Actually, it’s just going to give me a chance to try Mary Frances’s sweet potato fries (OMG) and a few other sweet potato dishes. We make some to-die-for candied/brandied sweet potatoes around here, but I’m trying to branch out.

I’ve also been craving a great coffee cake. Every week for faculty and/or department meetings, we are served huge trays of some tasty-looking cinnamon rolls. They are huge! Thankfully, I’m not much of a breakfast eater, so for 7:30 AM meetings – I can easily ignore the cinnamon rolls by sitting as far away from them as possible. 🙂 However, my department has a grand total of 7 teachers. It’s harder to hide from the cinnamon rolls, donuts, coffee cakes, muffins, etc that come through the door into our meetings on those days. So I decided to make my own and come prepared to battle with the aromas.

I made this great coffee cake to have a sweet-bread taste beyond just a sweet topping to stop me from craving any of the sweet-looking dishes that my colleagues were munching on. This coffee cake was made on Monday night and lasted super well through the next few days. I kept it on the counter covered with foil. While it was still moist, I did put my piece(s) into the microwave to reheat before eating. NOT because of the bread/moisture, but because that’s how I prefer to eat my coffee cakes – warm!

Don’t worry if you are not a sweet potato fan. This coffee cake hides the mild flavor very well.

Sweet Potato & Apple Coffee Cake
Ingredients:
For the coffee cake:
1 stick of butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 /3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup (HEAPING) mashed sweet potato (or pumpkin)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup your favorite GF flour mix with xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum IF your mix doesn’t have it
1/4 cup warm milk

For the apple topping:
3-4 Braeburn apples
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons “pumpkin pie spice” OR
1 teaspoon cinnamon + 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg + 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

For the icing:
1/2 cup powered sugar
1-2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions:

  1. Cream together butter and sugars.
  2. Add eggs (one at a time) until well incorporated.
  3. Add vanilla. Beat together and until fluffy (2-3 minutes)
  4. Add mashed sweet potato. Beat together again (2-3 minutes)
  5. In a small bowl, mix together dry ingredients (baking powder, salt, and GF flour). Add to wet ingredients until just blended – don’t over mix!
  6. Add 1/4 cup of warm milk until well-blended, but not over mixed.
  7. Spread onto silpat or parchment paper into a 1″ thick oblong (mine was about 12 inches wide and 9 inches long).
  8. Peel, core and slice the apples into 1/4″ wide slices.
  9. Sprinkle the apple slices with lemon juice and toss well.
  10. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and spices.
  11. Sprinkle over apple slices and toss to coat evenly.
  12. Evenly spread the apple slices on top of the coffee cake batter.
  13. Bake at 350F for 35 – 45 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick insert into the middle comes out clean.
  14. While the coffee cake bakes, stir together the powdered sugar and lemon juice.
  15. Allow the coffee cake to cool for about 10-15 minutes before drizzling with icing (or the icing will just melt into the apple topping).

The next time I make this, I will reduce the amount of sugar in the coffee cake as it was too sweet for my love and much more cake-like (sweet-wise) than I really wanted. It hit the spot though and got a lot of queries fo r the recipe from my gluten-eating buddies!

Enjoy!
Kate

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